Grab your pitchforks and salt containers folks, as the rumor mill has reawakened and is once again hinting at a Samsung phone with a metallic construction. According to industry sources quoted by ETNews, Samsung is planning to launch a new lineup of smartphones tentatively called the Galaxy Alpha, sometime next month. The Galaxy Alpha, or the first one in the new lineup, will reportedly be a premium smartphone made out of metal, and will be one of Samsung’s weapons against the iPhone 6, which will go on sale in September.

According to ETNews, the Galaxy Alpha – specs of which are currently unknown – will go against Samsung’s tradition of launching a Galaxy S flagship in the first half of a year and a Galaxy Note flagship in the second, and could see a change in the company’s strategy. However, we’re guessing that even if the Galaxy Alpha does launch as a flagship product, it probably won’t be a big part of Samsung’s strategy but will instead be a limited offering like the Galaxy S5 LTE-A.

As with all previous rumors about a metallic Samsung smartphone, this one needs to be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, though for proponents of metal, this will likely rekindle hope that Samsung has been listening and will finally follow what other industry players are doing (but knowing the company, it will likely be a few steps ahead of the competition when it comes to ergonomics and usability.)

Desperate? No, they already beat the iPhone when it comes to display quality, software/app flexibility, and innovation(the last big innovative features were Siri and the dual-LED flash from the iPhone 5). Samsung does listen, but also wants to balance things out. Now, the Note series is popular, but will never be mainstream due to the size for many, but what about things like the 2560×1440 display? Samsung can release that in a premium device in September/October for those who insist on a metal phone, leaving the Galaxy S line still set for an April-June release schedule.

Keep in mind that Apple keeps releasing teaser press releases here and there to try to draw attention from the growing popularity of Android devices, even when Apple has almost nothing new that would make anyone really excited to buy it compared to previous models.